Implications for the Origin of GRB 051103 from LIGO Observations

Authors

J. Abadie, LIGO - California Institute of Technology
B. P. Abbott, California State University Fullerton
T. D. Abbott, University of Glasgow
R. Abbott, California Institute of Technology
M. Abernathy, Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute)
C. Adams, Leibniz University Hannover
R. Adhikari, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
C. Affeldt, Stanford University
P. Ajith, University of Florida
B. Allen, Louisiana State University
G. S. Allen, University of Birmingham
E. Amador Ceron, National Science Foundation
D. Amariutei, Montana State University
R. S. Amin, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
S. B. Anderson, University of Western Australia
W. G. Anderson, Columbia University
K. Arai, University of Texas at Brownsville
M. A. Arain, San Jose State University
M. C. Araya, Lomonosov Moscow State University
S. M. Aston, Pennsylvania State University
D. Atkinson, Washington State University Pullman
P. Aufmuth, University of Oregon
C. Aulbert, Syracuse University
B. E. Aylott, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
S. Babak, University of Maryland
P. Baker, University of Massachusetts
S. Ballmer, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
D. Barker, University of Toronto
S. Barnum, Tsinghua University
B. Barr, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Shaon Ghosh, Montclair State UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

8-10-2012

Journal / Book Title

The Astrophysical Journal

Abstract

We present the results of a LIGO search for gravitational waves (GWs) associated with GRB 051103, a short-duration hard-spectrum gamma-ray burst (GRB) whose electromagnetically determined sky position is coincident with the spiral galaxy M81, which is 3.6Mpc from Earth. Possible progenitors for short-hard GRBs include compact object mergers and soft gamma repeater (SGR) giant flares. A merger progenitor would produce a characteristic GW signal that should be detectable at a distance of M81, while GW emission from an SGR is not expected to be detectable at that distance. We found no evidence of a GW signal associated with GRB 051103. Assuming weakly beamed γ-ray emission with a jet semi-angle of 30°, we exclude a binary neutron star merger in M81 as the progenitor with a confidence of 98%. Neutron star-black hole mergers are excluded with >99% confidence. If the event occurred in M81, then our findings support the hypothesis that GRB 051103 was due to an SGR giant flare, making it one of the most distant extragalactic magnetars observed to date.

DOI

10.1088/0004-637X/755/1/2

Journal ISSN / Book ISBN

1538-4357

MSU Digital Commons Citation

Abadie, J.; Abbott, B. P.; Abbott, T. D.; Abbott, R.; Abernathy, M.; Adams, C.; Adhikari, R.; Affeldt, C.; Ajith, P.; Allen, B.; Allen, G. S.; Ceron, E. Amador; Amariutei, D.; Amin, R. S.; Anderson, S. B.; Anderson, W. G.; Arai, K.; Arain, M. A.; Araya, M. C.; Aston, S. M.; Atkinson, D.; Aufmuth, P.; Aulbert, C.; Aylott, B. E.; Babak, S.; Baker, P.; Ballmer, S.; Barker, D.; Barnum, S.; Barr, B.; and Ghosh, Shaon, "Implications for the Origin of GRB 051103 from LIGO Observations" (2012). Department of Physics and Astronomy Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works. 82.
https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/physics-astron-facpubs/82

Published Citation

Abadie, J., Abbott, B. P., Abbott, T. D., Abbott, R., Abernathy, M., Adams, C., ... & Evans, T. (2012). Implications for the origin of GRB 051103 from LIGO observations. The Astrophysical Journal, 755(1), 2.